Canadian company Li-Metal Corp. (CSE: LIM | OTC: LIMFF | FSE: 5Z0) has successfully produced lithium metal at the company’s lithium metal piloting facility in Markham, Ontario. This would make it the first company in the world to produce refined lithium metal directly from lithium carbonate.
“We are thrilled to have successfully produced lithium metal demonstrating that our patented technology (patent CA3179470 issued by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office) can produce this highly valuable and strategic material,” Maciej Jastrzebski, co-founder and CTO of Li-Metal said.
“This is an important precursor to establishing commercial scale metal production and we believe it is the foundation for cost-effective and more sustainable lithium metal production in North America.”
Conventional lithium-ion battery anodes do not contain lithium metal and the supply chain depends heavily on materials such as graphite, which presents energy density, and sustainability challenges.
The production of lithium metal directly from lithium carbonate removes the need for corrosive material which eliminates the production of chlorine gas encountered in conventional lithium metal production processes, reducing the environmental impact, and enhancing the cost-effectiveness.
Li-Metal was recently granted a patent to produce lithium metal from carbonate (patent CA3179470 issued by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office), which further supports its growth strategy for its sustainable lithium metal business.
A key component of next generation lithium-ion batteries is lithium metal anodes, which offer substantial energy density improvements. However, more than 90% of lithium metal produced globally comes from China. Li-Metal plans to continue running piloting campaigns on the company’s pilot scale process to refine the product quality and process economics in preparation for commercial deployment.
Jastrzebski continued, “We believe we are one of the first internationally to produce lithium metal directly from lithium carbonate at this scale. The ability to produce metal from carbonate is a metallurgical process breakthrough and we are pleased to have accomplished this in Canada.”
For further information, please visit: www.li-metal.com/
